{"id":796,"date":"2025-06-18T10:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T14:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/?p=796"},"modified":"2025-06-19T22:20:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T02:20:37","slug":"free-speech-is-vital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/2025\/06\/18\/free-speech-is-vital\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech is Vital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The Mitchell News-Journal was created in 1991, the same year I was born here in Mitchell County. It has been a part of life from my earliest memories, always there to provide a window into my community. Lately, I&#8217;ve been especially grateful for the letters to the editor, and I commend the News-Journal for giving the writers a platform.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right now, free speech and a free press feel more vital than ever. Across the country, we&#8217;re seeing efforts to silence voices through lawsuits, detentions, and intimidation. When R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, a Ph.D. student at Tufts University, coauthored an op-ed in her campus newspaper expressing concerns about the university&#8217;s stance on the war in Gaza, she was detained by ICE and held for six weeks without justification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>A federal judge eventually ordered her release, but the strategy of silencing speech through fear remains. This isn&#8217;t about red vs. blue; it&#8217;s about our shared right to speak freely without fear. When local papers like the News-Journal publish diverse perspectives, they uphold the very principles that make our democracy strong.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So thank you again for making space for differing views and protecting the freedom that allows us to express ourselves and hold those in power accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">J. Wise<br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mitchell News-Journal was created in 1991, the same year I was born here in Mitchell County. It has been a part of life from my earliest memories, always there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/MI-Letters.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainindivisible.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}